Bailey Notches Double-Double as No. 14 MSU Bests No. 10 Wisconsin

MATCH STATS

• No. 14 Michigan State def. No. 10 Wisconsin 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-16)
• Michigan State moves to 12-3, 5-1 B1G; Wisconsin falls to 11-4, 2-4 B1G
• East Lansing, Michigan
• Attendance: 3,054
• Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich. – No. 14 Michigan State swept the season series with No. 10 Wisconsin, winning in four sets at home after taking a five-setter in Madison two weeks ago.

The Spartans won every statistical category except digs in the victory, besting the Badgers .348 to .295 in hitting efficiency, 63-55 in kills, 7-2 in aces and 7-4 in blocks. UW topped MSU in the backcourt, 54-51 in digs.

Redshirt senior outside hitter Autumn Bailey was the all-around leader for the Spartans with a team-best 16 kills and 13 digs. Senior outside Holly Toliver added 16 kills, nine digs and a team-leading four blocks. Redshirt senior outside Brooke Kranda (12) and senior middle blocker Alyssa Garvelink (11) also added double-digit kill efforts. Garvelink hit at a team-high .557 clip and notched four blocks, while Kranda served up six of the team’s seven aces. Freshman libero Jamye Cox pulled up 13 digs alongside Bailey for the team lead.

Junior middle Tionna Williams downed a match-high 17 kills, while hitting at an eye-popping .696 clip, with just one error in 23 swings, and putting a team-best three blocks. Senior outside Lauryn Gillis followed with 16 kills, while freshman middle Dana Rettke and senior outside Kelli Bates notched seven apiece. Freshman setter Sydney Hilley and Bates registered 14 digs apiece, followed by sophomore libero Tiffany Clark‘s 13. Hilley rounded out a double-double with 44 assists and also put up a team-high three blocks.

Wisconsin hit .321 in the opening set and capitalized on seven Spartan miscues in the 25-22 win. The teams split the first 16 points, before the Badgers surged ahead by three at 11-8 with help from a trio of UW errors. Down 13-10, MSU scored four in a row, two on Kranda aces and two from a kill and a block by Garvelink. The Badgers scored nine of the next 14 points to take a three-point lead at 22-19. Two kills and a block by Williams and two kills and a block by Gillis led UW in the rally. The teams split the final six points with Madison Duello downing the final kill for Wisconsin at 25-22.

MSU hit at a .421 clip in Set 2, grabbing a 10-5 lead early. Three Kranda kills and two each by Toliver and Bailey helped the Spartans in the early going. Wisconsin cut the margin to three at 13-10 as five different players posted kills. Michigan State used two Badger miscue and two Toliver kills to push ahead by six at 18-12. UW scored six of the next seven to pull within one at 19-18 with two putaways by Gillis and Williams. The Spartans closed out the win with six of the final eight points, with Toliver turning in the final two kills at 25-20.

Michigan State snapped a 6-all tie in Set 3 with a 5-1 run, including two Badger errors and a kill and a block by Tompkins. Later down 16-12, Wisconsin scored five straight to grab a 17-16 edge with help from two Gillis kills and a Riley Bell ace. Four players notched kills as the Spartans pushed ahead 23-20. Kranda posted two kills and an ace in the stretch. Bailey downed two kills to secure the 25-22 victory.

The Spartans closed out the match, making just one hitting error in a .419 effort in Set 4. MSU quickly took an 11-3 lead as Garvelink notched three kills and Kranda added two aces. Up just six at 17-11, Michigan State pulled away with a 5-0 run, including three blocks and a kill by Bailey, to make it 22-11. Two errors and a Rettke kills slowed the Spartans temporarily, but a kills by Toliver and Bailey put MSU on the hill for the match at 24-14. A service error three plays later capped the night.

Catch the highlights of last night’s victory over OSU! The Spartans are now 11-2 after their sixth straight win. pic.twitter.com/hQeLNEmEm1

— MSU Volleyball (@MichStVB) October 1, 2017

PRESS RELEASES

Courtesy: Michigan State Athletics

No. 14 Michigan State salvaged a split of its third week of Big Ten play, earning a 3-1 victory over No. 7 Wisconsin (22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-16) at Jenison Field House.

MSU swept the season series from Wisconsin for the first time since. 2012; MSU and the Badgers had met just once in each of the last three seasons. MSU won a 3-2 battle on opening night of 2017 Big Ten play in Madison , snapping a five-game winning streak for Wisconsin in the series.

The Spartans, who fell at No. 4 Nebraska on Wednesday, are now 12-3 overall on the year and 5-1 in Conference play; the Badgers fall to 11-4 and 2-4 in Big Ten action.

Michigan State had a four players record double-digit kills, each one dominating one set and giving the Badgers fits. Autumn Bailey had her fourth double double of the Big Ten season with 16 kills and 13 digs; Holly Toliver tied Bailey with 16 kills and added nine digs, two assists, and an ace. Toliver and Alyssa Garvelink each had a match-high four blocks, while Garvelink had 11 kills on a season-best .667 hitting percentage, and Brooke Kranda had 12 kills, hit .320, and served up six aces.

For the Badgers, Tionna Williams led her squad in bth kills (17) and three blocks, and also hit .696; Lauryn Gillis had 16 kills and a solo blocks, and Kelli Bates had a match-high 14 digs to go with seven kills.

Wisconsin hit .295 on the day, the highest for any opponent agaisnt the Spartans this season. However, MSU countered with .348, recovering from a .176 hitting percentage in the opening set to hit better than .400 in both the second and fourth sets, and .371 in the third as it rallied to win three-straight sets after a 22-25 setback in the opening frame.

The Spartans head back out on the road next week for road games at No. 2 Penn State and Rutgers.

QUOTABLE
“We were all unhappy with our execution in the first set, but I was really pleased with what we did after that. We were more intentional, more purposeful. We were not happy with the way we played on Wednesday at Nebraska, and I think that’s a sign of a pretty focused, mature team that we were able to regroup and come together against a good team like Wisconsin. We knew that this was going to be a challenge – we beat them at their place to start Big Ten play, and I’m sure that they were coming here to try to avenge that. It was a strong way for us to rebound and add to our resume with a third win over a top-10 team in three weeks. We will be looking for consistency in our performance, which will be critical as we go on the road again next week at No. 2 Penn State and Rutgers.”

– Head Coach Cathy George

TOP PERFORMERS

Alyssa Garvelink had 11 kills and four blocks, hitting .667,

Autumn Bailey and Holly Toliver each posted 16 kills. Bailey had the double-double with 13 digs, while Toliver just missed with nine digs.

Brooke Kranda had 12 kills and six aces on the day., hitting. 320.

STATS AND STORYLINES

MSU swept the season series from WIsconsin, winning 3-2 in Madison and 3-1 at home. The Spartans had lost five straight to the Badgers entering the season, and had not swept a season series from Wisconsin since 2012.

Holly Toliver has had double-digit kills in five of the six Big Ten matches this season, the lone exception the nine she had in the 3-0 win over Maryland. Her previous high in a Big Ten match this season was 12 in the opener at Wisconsin, and her season best was 13 at Notre Dame. Kranda also has five double-digit kills in Big Ten play.

Autumn Bailey had her fourth double-double in six Big Ten matches.

Bailey had all five of her hitting errors in the first two sets, where she also had five kills. She went 11-0-26 in the final two sets. Toliver had three errors in the opening frame, but had 13 killsand one error on 24 swings over the balance of the game.

Rachel Minarick had 52 assists (one off her season best and three shy of her career high), adding four kills (.667, 4-0-6) and nine digs, just missing a double-double.

Brooke Kranda had a season-best six aces on the day, one shy of the Jenison Field House record of seven. Her career best was nine, a four-set school record, at Purdue last season.

MSU won its first four-set match of the season. The Spartans were 0-2 in four setters until today, losing to both Georgia Tech and No. 4 Nebraska.

MSU has won seven of its last eight matches, and has not lost back-to-back matches this season.

Jamye Cox finished with 13 digs and a season-best six assists.

GAME REPLAY

SET ONE: MSU opened up a 6-3 early lead on a pair of thundering kills by Garvelink, but the Badgers rallied to pull ahead 11-8 on a 8-2 run aided by a pair of MSU hitting errors. Still trailing by three (13-10), MSU got the sideout on a Garvelink kill, then got back-to-back aces from Kranda and a Garvelink block to pull ahead 14-13. The Badgers countered with a 5-0 run to go up three, 18-15. The Spartans contested the next point that was called out of bounds, believing there was a touch by the UW blocker. The call went the Spartans’ way, and it became a two-point deficit instead of four. Toliver then pulled it within one with an ace – MSU’s fourth of the frame – and Bailey knotted it up at 18-all, forcing Wisconsin into a time out. The Badgers went on a 3-0 run out of their break, stopped by a Minarick dump that made it 21-19. Wisconsin got to set point on a Gillis kill, but despite Toliver fending it off once with her third kill of the frame, UW sealed it on a termination by Madison Duello to take the first set, 25-22. Garvelink’s four kills and two blocks led the Spartans, who also got three each from Kranda and Toliver. The Badgers hit .321 to MSU’s .176, and held a 3-2 edge in blocks.

SET TWO: Three early kills from Kranda helped MSU build a 4-1 edge, which became 8-3 off of seven Spartan kills. Wisconsin got two back on MSU errors to make it 8-5, MSU earned its largest lead of the day to that point at 10-5, but Wisconsin got it back within three, where the teams battled point-for-point. MSU’s lead fluxuated between three and five points until a 4-0 Badger run capped by a Gillis kill tied it at 18-all. MSU took a time out and was on fire out of that break, scoring seven of the next nine points and evening up the match at one set apiece with a 25-20 win in set two. Holly Toliver had seven kills on 10 attempts in the frame and added a block and two digs, while Kranda had six kills. The Spartans did it all for themselves, recording 20 kills and a block in the frame to account for 21 of the 25 points in the frame. For the Badgers, they hit .273 led by Gillis’ four kills.

SET THREE: The Spartans led by as many .as five when they turned a 6-5 deficit into a 11-7 edge with a 5-2 run. With MSU up 16-12, the Badgers called a time out which allowed them to regroup, scoring five straight to take a 17-16 lead. Tied at 20-20, the Spartans took a two-point edge on a thundering kill by Toliver followed by a Kranda ace, forcing Wisconsin to take its second time out. The teams traded errors, and Bailey got the Spartans to a set point with a big hit at the left pin. A dump by Hilley put off the inevitable, as the Spartans went back to Bailey for the final swing to seal it, 25-22. The redshirt senior led the Spartans with five kills and four digs in the frame, while Toliver and Kranda each had three to put three Spartans int double figures. MSU hit .371 and had 14 digs in the frame.

SET FOUR: MSU ran out to an 8-3 lead, and led by as many as eight points in the early part of the fourth set before a 3-1 run for Wisconsin pulled them within seven, 15-8. MSU kept its foot on the gas, pushing its lead out to 20-11 and keeping the Badgers out of system. MSU had its largest lead of the day at 22-11, which MSU scored on back-to-back kills by Bailey. The Badgers countered with three straight to make it 22-14, at which point MSU called a timeout to regroup. The Spartans got to set point on a kill by Toliver (24-14), but she followed with a service error and Tionna Williams kill brought the Badgers to 24-16. A service error by Rettke ended it for the Spartans. Bailey had six kills and two digs in the final frame, while Garvelink and Toliver each had three. Kranda served up a pair of aces to push her game total to six. Williams had five kills to lead the Badgers in the fourth, who hit .250- but MSU’s pressure in the fourth frame led to 14 kills and just one error (.419).

Courtesy: Wisconsin Athletics

The seventh-ranked volleyball team could not find a way to top No. 14 Michigan State on the road, dropping their third-straight match. The Spartans won the contest 22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-16, at Jenison Field House Saturday afternoon.

MSU (12-3 overall, 5-1 Big Ten) could not be slowed on offense, hitting .348 (55 kills – 17 errors – 129 attempts) for the match. UW (11-4, 2-4) hit .295 (63-15-138).

Junior Tionna Williams led the Cardinal and White with 17 kills while hitting .696 (17-1-23). Senior Lauryn Gillisearned 16 kills with Dana Rettke and Kelli Bates adding nine kills each.

Behind the service line, Michigan State picked up seven aces, six of which came from Brooke Kranda. The Badgers had two aces, one from Riley Bell and the other from Madison Duello.

In the backcourt Wisconsin had 54 digs to Michigan State’s 51. Hilley and Bates each had 14 digs and libero Tiffany Clark collected 13 digs.

Notable
Freshman Sydney Hilley recorded her fourth career double-double with 44 assists and a career-high 14 digs.
MSU’s hitting percentage of .348 is the highest percentage by an opponent of the season.
The Badgers were outblocked 7-4, which ties their season low.
Tionna Willimas and Lauryn Gillis recorded season-high kills, earning 17 and 16, respectively. Williams hitting percentage of .696 (17-1-23) is also a season high.
Riley Bell tied her career high with one ace.
UW hasn’t lost three-straight matches since 2015, when they lost to Arkansas at the end of the non-conference season and Penn State, and Ohio State to open up Big Ten play.

Quotable
“We gave away too many points in our serve and pass game. With the number of errors that we had passing and the number of errors we had serving, which was an issue. A lot of our serves that were in wasn’t getting them out of system what so ever. We spent the afternoon with our setter on the run. This team, especially at home, their serving is unbelievable. They had us on our heels the entire afternoon passing and I’m not sure we did enough behind the service line to cause them a whole lot of issues as well.”

“I thought Tionna (Williams) was fantastic. The first part of the match I thought she was really effective in serve receive. The second half of the match I thought she was really effective as well in transition and was working really hard. She was mixing up her shots. I think her and Sydney (Hilley) were connecting really well.”
-Head coach Kelly Sheffield

Up next
The volleyball team returns home to face No. 4 Nebraska Wednesday night at the UW Field House. The match will air live on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m.